...we all want to hear stories, from the moment we are born to the moment we die. Stories connect our little lives with the world around us and help us discover who we are.

The great teachers are always those who can live the tension. They are not criticizing everybody, they're not complaining. They give young people a vision.

In other words, first we must call people to communion with God, to intimacy with God, to a sense of belonging. Most people are lost, confused, alienated. They suffer and struggle immensely in relationships. We have to proclaim loudly and clearly in our actions and in our words that God loves us that we belong to him. That's a call to the mystical life.

Our glory is hidden in our pain, if we allow God to bring the gift of himself in our experience of it.

God, help me to see others not as enemies or as ungodly but rather as thirsty people. And give me the courage and compassion to offer your Living Water, which alone quenches deep thirst.

I feel the problems I have are meant to purify me.

You don't have to run around world proving you're lovable.